


I Imagine It Might

by Jeevey



Category: U2 (Band)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-12 09:47:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17465189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jeevey/pseuds/Jeevey
Summary: Next week, U2 are going to London for a record deal. But tonight it's Bono, Edge, and a rooftop.





	I Imagine It Might

The lights of Dublin didn't quite reach the roof of The Village. Clotted crowds of adrenaline-charged young people had drained away much earlier, and the iron doors clanged shut. Overhead, thin summer clouds stranded through the Irish night. The moon had long ago sunk below the horizon, and Bono and Edge were left on a platform of darkness between city and sky.

There were a few other people still left on the roof, either passed out on a rusty divan or curled up together near the chimney pots. The after-party had migrated up here as it often did, but eventually the others had fallen asleep or gone off to find a bed in somebody's house. Ali was out of town visiting relatives, and Bono had very little desire to go find another place to sleep. Certainly he had none to go home.

"Edge?" he said, addressing the head that rested on his belly.

"Mm?" Edge's head turned a little toward his voice.

"What did you think of Paul McGuinness? Is he going to be good for us? Can he really get our record deal?"

"Well. I think he frightens me a little bit. He's kind of like a bulldog, isn't he? The kind we want to have on our side, maybe not entirely safe. Like he might take our hands off if we make a slip, you know?"

"But he can do it? When we go to London next week, that's going to be it, isn't it?"

"We'll come home with a deal, Bono. We have what it takes, you know we do. Especially you. We just have to go and let them see it for themselves. Paul will do whatever he needs to get us signed."

"I know he will. But I'm not sure I want to know how he does it!"

He felt Edge's shoulders quiver with laughter. "What, lock somebody's granny in the attic?"

Bono giggled. "Promise his first born!"

"Sell his body at an industry convention?"

"Sell Larry's body, is more like it."

"Hey, now that might get us places," Edge said. "Why haven't we thought of that before?"

Bono laughed until his sides hurt and sat up, shunting Edge's head into his lap. He leaned over until he could see Edge's face clearly in the semi-dark.

"I'm not drunk," he said seriously.

"Of course not."said Edge, chuckling. "I lost count of your pints hours ago, so there couldn't have been many."

"I'm just really comfortable is all.” He righted himself and looked around. “ The stairs seem like a long way down tonight, don't they?"

"Mm. And a long way away off. Way over there." Edge waved toward the corner of the building where the stairwell opened on to the roof.

"That's just what I was thinking. It's much nicer here than in the stairs, all dark and smelly."

"I suppose we might make it all the way down the stairs." Edge stirred briefly in Bono's lap. "No, never mind. You're right, here is better."

Bono smiled and smoothed Edge's hair. It was crisp from wilted laquer on top, but behind his ears the strands were like silk. 

"I was proud of you tonight, Edge. You're really making the Memory Man work for you. You looked so confident up there,and your solos were the best yet."

Edge's face creased in a grin. "Playing to a home crowd is easier, and they aren't really solos anyway. Just arpeggios a little louder, is all."

"Well, it sounds fantastic, so arpeggiate away." 

Edge's eyes blinked up at him, suddenly a little serious, and impulsively Bono bent and kissed him.

Bono had probably already given him about hundred kisses over the course of their friendship, but somehow this last one turned peculiar. Edge had a warm clean smell like soap and aftershave, stage sweat and the lingering scent of dark beer. His lips were irresistibly warm, and without thinking Bono nudged his way between them. The flicker of a simple buss softened in something rather less than chaste--or more.

A narrow hand caught Bono by the lapel and kept him in place. It was uncomfortable bent over his own knees like this, but also unexpectedly sweet. Edge's hand kept a firm tension during a brief and breathless exploration- and then pulled. After a moment's hesitation Bono shimmied his legs out from under Edge's head and worked his way downward, following the pull of that hand. Just the touch of lips and occasionally a tiny brush of tongue- it was lovely. Bono followed it down until he lay alongside Edge, propped on one elbow. They were like little mollusks in the ocean of night, safe in the shell of their clothes. Edge's face was softly stubbled, the friendliest thing Bono could imagine. Just his friend; his hair and his mouth. His chest rising and falling against Bono's own. 

Edge pulled back just enough to speak.

"Bono, I'm not like Gavin."

Bono chuckled. "Nobody's like Gavin."

"You know what I mean."

Here was the tender inside of Edge's lip, contrasted with prickles on the outside. Bono tasted it slowly, then pulled back with a sudden thought.

"Edge, nobody is like us. No one does what we do or has what we have. Why do people keep passing us by? When is it our time?"

"Maybe we're not ready yet. Adam still forgets his parts. We still can't end the songs. Half the time our shows are brilliant and the other half are total bombs."

"Well, I'm ready right now," Bono said impatiently. Edge just lifted his chin for another one. 

Bono brought his mouth back to Edge's and slowly worked his elbow out until they lay face to face. It was funny, kissing a friend. Lips as smooth as a girl’s but the bones closer to the surface underneath. The scents all wrong but still so nice, and the firm flat body beside him. He pulled away and rolled onto his back, looking at the sky.

"I think I love Ali," he said.

"We all love Ali. She's a darling."

"She's amazing. She's just never impressed, you know?"

"But you like to impress people."

"Oh, I do. But people are impressed so easily, you know. You can do it in a minute. But Ali-- every day I knock myself out trying to impress her and she never is. But she keeps coming back. Or letting me back. I think she's the one, Edge. Is Aislinn your one?"

Edge was quiet for a long time. Finally he said, "I don't know that I have a one."

Bono sighed. "No. I guess they sent only you this time."

"Wait. Who sent me?" Edge asked.

Bono waved a hand at the sky. "Your people. Up there, wherever they are. I guess they sent only you to scout it out for the rest of them."

"I don't think I'm the one here that's from outer space, Bono."

"Of course you are. Someday when scientists figure out how, they're going to examine your cells and find out that you're not really one of us at all."

"That won't happen in our lifetime."

"It will! Your game will be up, and all your super powers will be revealed. You'll be Galexo, the Universe Man! And then after you save the planet--you'll get your video game in all the arcades."

Edge was laughing.

"If I'm from outer space, then you're from down here somewhere. You've got to be Earthquake man, or..."

"Volcano Man! Watch out when I go off!" They snickered into each other’s shoulders. "Edge. I think I may be a little drunk after all."

"I think you might be, too."

Bono hummed a little tune. "And I think it's gonna be a long, long time,’ til touchdown brings me round again, I know. I'm not the man they think I am at home....Oh, Edge. I'll be Volcano Man and you'll be--"

"Bono, no! I don't want to be. That’s silly…."

"You are! You're a rocket maaaaan." He rolled up onto his elbow to bellow the line, then kissed Edge again, brushing the sharp chin with his fingers. He ran his knuckles along the lean jaw and ivory neck, and then slipped his fingers down the collar. His fingers stroked curiously under the white shirt.

"Edge, you're so thin!" he said in dismay. "Ali has the darlingest chub all over. Anyplace you touch her, she goes squish. But you don't squish a bit."

"Not if you keep on like that," said Edge, wriggling slightly under the touch. "I have a couple of bits that go squish, under ordinary circumstances."

"You dirty dog."

"I mean it. You're going to have to stop soon."

Bono leaned back and looked at him, at the lean body stretched out on the roof, the hollow belly collapsed below arched ribs and narrow hips trailing down.

"Do you want me to stop?"

"No,” he said quietly.

"Good. Because I like this." Bono bent his head again for the funny mix of textures and scents that was kissing the Edge. "It's nice, don't you think? You'd think it would be strange, kissing a man. But it's not."

"It is a little."

"A little," Bono agreed. "But it's not like you'd think. Or not like I thought, at least. Not-- not pornographic. Not all sweaty men moaning and heaving in big mustaches."

"I seem to have forgotten my sweaty mustache somehow," Edge said.

"Edge! I'd love to see you in a big sweaty mustache someday. When we're older and mustaches are cool again, and you can grow a good one; God knows I never will." He flopped down on his back. "It's so different, really, isn't it? When I kiss Ali it's like I need everything right that minute. I want to crawl right inside her skin. But this, it's almost like kissing yourself."

"So you think," said Edge. Bono looked at him. 

"I don't think you'd find it so easy if I wasn't letting you drive."

"Edge! Have you been letting be drive?"

"Of course." Edge tucked his hands under his head and gazed at the thready clouds.

"I would too like it,” he said. “No, really! Try it. You're a beautiful kisser, Edge."

"That is what they say," Edge murmured.

Bono shook his head, grinning. "You're a dark horse, you are. Come on then. Lay it on me." Edge turned his gaze from the sky to examine him. "What? Do you think you're too much man for me to handle, Mister David Evans? Well, I've got news for you. I'm a man- a volcano man, in fact, and I'll take anything you've got. You're driving."

Edge gave a silent chuckle and rose up on one elbow until they were nose to nose in the bluish dark. His gaze began at Bono's hand, and moved slowly over the leather-clad arm and shoulder to settle at the base of his bare neck. His hand slid under Bono's jaw, settling into the hollow just under the ear.

Bono's eyes faltered. "Take your time, why don't you."

Edge placed his thumb over Bono's lips and shook his head. He passed the hand lightly over the cheek, pushed the fingers through Bono’s hair, and leaned in. Bono's lips were slightly parted in anticipation, and parted further at first contact. His breath contracted sharply inward. Edge found his tongue almost immediately and called it, asking. Bono gave, curling under the taste of Guinness and man. He allowed Edge deeper into his mouth and then, out of sheer hunger and habit, began to push back. Edge stopped him with a fierce shake of the head.

"Oh, that's difficult!" Bono gasped.

Edge's teeth closed lightly on his lip, and his hand tightened on Bono's neck. 

His weight began to bear against him now, pushing him ineluctably onto his back. The arm he leaned on threaded itself under Bono's neck and gripped his shoulder. Bono's hand lifted and moved slowly, aimlessly in the dark, then settled on Edge's lean back. Moving more hungrily now, Edge thrust into Bono's mouth. Bono gasped with effort to accommodate him and yet breathe. The slight, aggressive weight Edge's body bore onto Bono's chest and then, terrifyingly, his hips. Bono began to squirm.

Edge growled and pinned him tighter. "I'm driving." 

Bono nodded and took a deep breath, fighting to control his response. A quiet moan escaped from his throat.

At last Edge began to slacken his intensity. His lips drew slowly away while his hand relaxed, then curled again at the back of Bono's neck.

"I think that's as much as we should do tonight,” he said quietly.

Bono nodded with his eyes shut, and pressed his jaw feverishly into Edge's hand. 

"Do you still think it's nice?"

Bono shivered.

Edge let him go and slid onto his back. They both looked up at the sky.

"I'll have to tell Ali," Bono said unsteadily.

"Will you?"

"Of course. Won't you tell Aislinn?"

"I don't know."

Bono turned his head and looked at Edge's silent profile.

"Will that happen again?" he asked.

Edge gave him a sideways glance of unmistakable smugness. "I imagine it might. Someday." 

A long silence ensued. 

"Once more, then?" Edge asked the sky, and shifted his gaze to Bono. An expression of transparent assent passed over Bono's face, followed by a flash of uncertainty.

"I won't this time," Edge promised.

They rolled together onto their sides, uncertain of who was to start. They met in the middle, a tentative slide of lip and slip of tongue. Push and slip, back and forth in teasing play. At last Bono broke away laughing. 

"It's just too silly, isn't it?"

Edge kissed the very center of Bono's lip once, and then once more. "It is and it isn't."

Bono rolled his eyes.

"Well, if that isn't a perfectly Edge-y answer for you. It's the man from outer space, everybody! He knows the future, he knows the truth of all things!" He waited until their laughter stilled and looked at the serene face on the blanket beside him. "Do you want to go home?"

"I want to stay here. We'll go when it's morning." 

Edge pulled the corner of the blanket they lay on up around his shoulder. The short Irish night was already ending. Distantly a few birds began to sing in the dark. The coo and flutter of pigeons rose from an adjoining roof. Bono sighed contentedly.

"I'm glad we did that, the Edge. It was really lovely. I feel sorry for people who haven't done that before, don't you? I feel sorry for ourselves just yesterday! or last night... whenever it was, just before we were here. Don't you think the world would be a better place if everybody kissed each other more? And if people kissed their friends especially. Maybe then everyone wouldn't be so cranky all the time. Why are you laughing?"

"Bono. Can't you be quiet for two minutes together?"

 

Bono held his breath for only a second. "Being quiet is hard! And dull. But I'm really good other things that last for much longer than two minutes. You might be interested, the Edge."

Edge laughed and pulled Bono into the hollow of his shoulder. "Hush, you." 

A few last shuffles on the hard concrete roof, and they slept. The pigeons found them still curled together when the sun came up.


End file.
